I Desire Mercy, Not Sacrifice

I went to a function over the weekend that started as a birthday party for a 12-year-old cousin, but quickly morphed into a family reunion since many of us were seeing each other for the first time in years. In fact, when I shook hands with my cousin Kenneth it was the first time we’d crossed paths in nearly three decades. We all reminisced and the conversation inevitably led to the matriarch of my mother’s family, my deceased grandmother who lived to the ripe age of 95.

The woman had lived a difficult life since arriving at Ellis Island as a little girl with her Polish family. She gave birth to 10 children, but only seven survived until adulthood. A set of twins died at birth and a 10-year-old daughter died after the poison from her abscessed tooth shot to her brain. She buried her husband and four sons, all of whom were alcoholics. When she said goodbye to the last of her sons she told those in earshot that she “was supposed to be the one in the casket, not her son.” And then she added the words that all parents feel when they lose a child: “It’s not normal to bury your kids.” Later in life when she was in her 60s, she raised one of my cousins, rescuing her from an unfit mother.

Later that night as I drove home from the party, I was reminded of a conversation I had with Monsignor Cassato from St. Athanasius Church in Brooklyn , NY . I was considering writing a column about how the Church was doing a poor job teaching the flock Catholic doctrine and dogmas. I asked the monsignor his thoughts and he said, “Donald, we try when we can. The truth is there is so much sadness and pain in the world that often we don’t have the time to do that. You wouldn’t believe the calls we get every day from people, beaten down by life.”

Beaten down by life.

I think of my grandmother now, and perhaps for the first time in my life I truly understand Christ’s scolding of his fellow Jews for not understanding the words, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” We all need to remember, and I may need this reminder more than anyone, that as we defend the Faith we must keep compassion foremost in our minds. It’s not easy sometimes. Some people’s personalities make it very difficult to do so. But it’s at these times that we need to remember Christ’s description of the last judgment to his disciples:

“Then shall the king say to them that shall be on his right hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in:

Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me. Then shall the just answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry, and fed thee; thirsty, and gave thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and covered thee? Or when did we see thee sick or in prison, and came to thee? And the king answering, shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me. “ (Matthew 25: 34-40)

Donald Tremblay

This Is How it Begins

Yes, this is how it begins. Sure we have a first amendment, but activist judges will find a way around that inconvenience. It’ll start the way it did in places like Canada . Laws will be passed to prevent discrimination. Then those laws will be used to argue that “offensive” words are a form of discrimination and violate a person’s rights. Eventually the very teachings of Christianity will be considered hate speech and will result in lawsuits. Paranoia on my part? Hardly. (See: “Attack on Religious Freedom Begins in Earnest in Canada ” - Battleground Homosexuality - http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/oct/06100601.html )

We now have the beginnings of this in the United States . The Church Report Online announced in their newsletter today that “a Michigan man has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that certain Bibles from Thomas Nelson Publishing and another Bible publisher discriminate against gays.” (http://www.thecronline.com/mag_article.php?mid=1369&mname=July)

Here is the scriptural passage under dispute:

"Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the Kingdom of God ? Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God ." (1 Corinthians, 6:9)

Bradley Fowler, the homosexual man who has filed the lawsuit, says “he believes the use of the word homosexual in the Bibles is a misinterpretation and that the verse isn't translated correctly.”

It seems unlikely that the case will be heard . . . but it doesn’t matter. This is the beginning of the slippery slope. More lawsuits will follow in the coming months and years, each one more focused on the minutiae of the law, intent on finding a loophole that will allow an activist judge to strike a blow against the homophobic Catholic Church.

Be watchful. Be aware.

Donald Tremblay

Comic Relief

Even those who daily “fight the good fight” need a good laugh. So here’s one for today.

According to yesterday’s Daily Telegraph, a very angry group of people resent Pope Benedict XVI’s invitation to Australia for the World Youth Day celebrations. The Gay Raelian society “staged a demonstration outside Parliament House to protest the Pope's arrival for World Youth Day next week.” (http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23994345-5006009,00.html)

What are Raelians? Well, Raelians believe that the world was created by an alien civilization 25,000 years ago. “Raelian spokeswoman Eden Bates said it was an insult that the Pope would be welcomed into Australia when ‘our gorgeous, fantastic spiritual leader Rael wasn't even given the respect of a visa’.”

Indeed. That is quite a slap in the face to our extra-terrestrial creators.

Perhaps NASCAR officials could help with the visa issue since Rael is “a Frenchman and former motor sport journalist and race-car driver whose parents, the Vorilhons, called him Claude.”

The group’s website (http://www.raeliangay.org/en/index.html) offers the following welcome to visitors:

ARAMIS is the Raelian Association of the Sexual Minorities that gathers men and women who are homosexual, bisexual, transsexuals or transgender on all five continents and was founded by RAEL, the spiritual leader of an atheist religious movement: The International Raelian Movement.

The members of ARAMIS are thus members of the philosophy of the one who was the first spiritual leader to have said that the sexual orientation is genetic and not a choice of life. . . . ARAMIS also denounces the major traditional religions that spread false beliefs that create prejudices, taboos and violence toward the GBLTT, particularly the homosexuals. In the same token, ARAMIS invites them to apostatize from their religion if the latter has homophobic writings, discourse or attitude.

You would think an alien civilization that went through the trouble of creating a world would insist that its followers focus on more important issues plaguing its creation, such as war, famine, and disease. But apparently not.

Incidentally, what is an atheist religious movement? Is that like an all-you-can-eat buffet at a weight-loss camp?

You can’t make this stuff up.

Donald Tremblay

Just When You Think You’ve Heard it All

No, I haven’t heard it all.

Every time I think I have, something else comes along to straighten me out.

In 2007, The Children’s Hospital Boston added the Gender Management Service Clinic. What is Gender Management? Good question. Well, according to an article in this month’s issue of National Catholic Register entitled “Boys will be Girls?” the clinic “allows young children to select their own gender and treats them with hormones.” (National Catholic Register: July 6-12, p 12)

Oh. And that’s not all.

“So-called ‘transgendered’ children are increasingly likely to be channeled into programs that treat them with hormones and on the road to full ‘sexual reassignment’—including amputating surgeries to give them pseudo-genitalia of the opposite sex.” (Ibid)

“Pre-adolescents are given hormone injections to delay puberty, and children as young as seven are encouraged to decide whether they want to be male or female.” (Ibid)

Disgraceful, and dangerous, as former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore Paul McHugh wrote in a 2004 article for First Things magazine:

“I have witnessed a great deal of damage from sex-reassignment. The children transformed from their male constitution into female roles suffered prolonged distress and misery as they sensed their natural attitudes. Their parents usually lived with the guilt over their decisions–second-guessing themselves and somewhat ashamed of the fabrication, both surgical and social, they had imposed on their sons.”

Catholic Online posted a column about Boston ’s Gender Management clinic on May 8, 2008. (http://www.catholic.org/printer_friendly.php?id=27890&section=Cathcom) In the article moral theologian Father Anthony Mastroeni of Paterson NJ , who has taught at Franciscan University of Steubenville and Christendom College , blasts the idea that sex-change surgery might be morally justified:

“It does nothing but increase human misery. There’s no scientific evidence that anyone is born with gender dysphoria.”

This clinic is nothing more than a homosexual and transgender recruiting center. It is political correctness masquerading as science. But don’t expect the mass media to cover this outrage since they have been the biggest flag-waivers for the same-sex movement. It is only by reading a Catholic newspaper that I first learned of it.

Is there any doubt that the homosexual and transgender movements will stop at nothing to force their intrinsically disordered lifestyles onto the heterosexual community?

Donald Tremblay

Anything to Discredit Faith in the Lord Jesus

I’m amazed at the lengths people will go to discredit Christianity. The International Herald Tribune reported yesterday about a “three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus.” (http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/05/africa/06stone.php) The stone is of interest to many because “it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days”. According to the daily this is important because it “suggests that the story of his [Jesus] death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.” Israel Knohl, a professor of Bible studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem bluntly states, “"This should shake our basic view of Christianity . . . Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story."

And . . . . .?

Why this should shake our view of Christianity is beyond me. Perhaps Mr. Knohl should re-read Matthew 5:17:

“Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.”

Fulfill. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines fulfill as “to carry out, as a promise”. In other words Christ was carrying out the promise of a resurrected messiah.

The Catholic News Agency (http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=13168) answered the Tribune’s article by posting its own, arguing that “while one scholar claims the find could ‘shake our basic view of Christianity,’ a Catholic Professor of Scripture suggests the tablet is actually evidence for the historical probability of Christian belief.” (Why the Tribune didn’t see fit to interview a Christian scholar about Knohl’s claims is a story in itself)

Dr. Timothy Gray, a professor of Biblical Studies at the Augustine Institute in Denver , points out that Jesus made many references to the Book of Daniel and “that the Jewish expectation of a dying messiah is shown in Daniel’s prophecies, noting that Daniel chapter 9 talks about how an anointed messiah will be cut off and killed.” Gray also exposes the hypocrisy of many who seek to discredit Christianity:

“On the one hand, scholars argue no Jewish tradition about a messiah suffering shows that the Church added this idea. And once you show a document, an ancient document to point to, showing that they did interpret a prophet like Daniel to expect a suffering messiah, well then people say ‘Well this proves Christianity can’t be true.’”

“You can’t have it both ways,” Gray said.

“The point is that our people in modern media and modern scholars will use any evidence as disproof of Christianity, even if it illustrates the evidence of Christian belief. And this evidence clearly points to the historical probability of Christianity, to the historical Jesus.

Well said, Dr. Gray.

Donald Tremblay

An End in Themselves

In today’s Wall Street Journal Adam Keiper reviews Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121547414111533875.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries) Keiper says that author Michael S. Gazzaniga purports to argue that “modern neuroscience is on the brink of offering us real answers to these questions – answers more reliable and truthful than those that centuries of philosophy, religious tradition and literature have offered.” Yet, what is most interesting about the review is the concern Keiper raises at the conclusion of his column:

“More important, Mr. Gazzaniga does little to explore the implications of the research he describes. Once we have been armed with the latest scientific findings about how our brains came to be and how they function, how ought we to act?”

We find ourselves in that position today as a society. Embryonic stem-cell research, cloning, genetic engineering: all force us to consider the morality of “doing things just because we can”. We seem to have forgotten Immanuel Kant’s instruction to treat people as an end in themselves, and not as a means to an end. Using discarded embryos for research and cloning humans for the purpose of harvesting organs violate that piece of wisdom. And as we continue to make advancements in science there will be more opportunities for us to support whatever is viewed as “what’s best for society”. For ex, some insist that cures for terrible diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s will be found if we only support embryonic research. Catholics must stand firm, no matter the temptation, and reject this utilitarian approach to life. Our responsibility is to defend those who cannot defend themselves:

“Science and technology by their very nature require unconditional respect for fundamental moral criteria. They must be at the service of the human person, of his inalienable rights, of his true and integral good, in conformity with the plan and the will of God.” (Catechism 2294)

Oh, and one side note: Any medical advancements resulting from stem cell research were made from ADULT stem cells. There has not been a single case of embryonic stem cells resulting in any scientific breakthrough. The truth is that the science behind it is specious. The next time someone argues that more money should be spent on this research, ask them why more private donations are not being made to support it. If this science is the cure-all that some claim it is, then it would be a gold mine for investors. Yet, investors are staying away. That should tell you something.

Donald Tremblay

The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways

We’ve all heard this adage since we were kids. Most of us have probably experienced it in our own lives on more than one occasion. We may be experiencing it now on a global scale.

Before his crucifixion Christ said to the Father, “And now I am not in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name whom thou has given me; that they may be one, as we also are.” (John 17: 11) We don’t know whether Christians will be one prior to Judgment Day. Yet, based on the most recent current events, perhaps we Publish Postare witnessing the early stages of that unification.

Yesterday the Daily Telegraph, a London daily newspaper, announced that “Senior Church of England bishops have held secret talks with Vatican officials to discuss the crisis in the Anglican communion over gays and women bishops.” (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2254269/Anglican-bishops-in-secret-Vatican-summit.html) The article goes on state that “up to 600 clergy gave warning in a letter to Dr Williams [Archbishop of Canterbury] that they may leave the Church unless they receive a legal right to havens within the Church free of women bishops.”

One bishop is quoted anonymously stating, “"The internal pressure of the Anglican communion has pushed us apart and we’re committed to greater unity with Rome . There can be no future for Christianity in Europe without Rome ."

With each day western society becomes more of a frothing cauldron of secularism. In order to withstand this onslaught Christians will need to unite. An Anglican branch of the Roman Catholic Church?

Well, the Lord does work in mysterious ways.

Donald Tremblay